After watching eight seasons of the epic saga Game of Thrones, fans can now enter what may be a competition on par with the battle for the Iron Throne: an auction of prized memorabilia from the HBO series.
Fans can now bid on a slew of costumes, props, set pieces and memorabilia from the hit show that ended in 2019.
More than 2000 items — including a melted version of the coveted Iron Throne — distributed across 900 lots will be on the auction block in October through Heritage Auctions.
The starting bids range from $US500 to $US20,000 (NZ$500 to $32,000) for items as iconic as Jaime Lannister’s full suit of armour and sword, to props as granular as prosthetic teeth used for the White Walkers.
Other notable items include Daenerys Targaryen’s memorable cloaks, coats and leather ensembles — some that feature dragon chokers and accents — worn by Emilia Clarke, Jon Snow’s notorious Longclaw sword wielded by Kit Harington, and the Hand of the Queen Pin donned by Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister.
Even items that didn’t boast much screen time, like the bell wielded during Cersei Lannister’s walk of shame or bloodstained garb from the infamous Red Wedding, are expected to draw fans’ attention during bidding.
Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the auction — a chance for fans to “grab a piece of history” — speaks to the staying power the series has had five years after its finale.
“Game of Thrones was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said.
“This is something we all grew up with. It’s impacted every single one of our lives. It’s impacted the culture, and Game of Thrones has meant something to every single person.”
Although the series started in 2011 and several items in the auction date back to then, they have not been “collecting dust”, Roewe said.
HBO had been carefully preserving thousands of props, costumes and set pieces since the series began for use on potential spinoffs or sequels.
With House of The Dragon having recently completed its second season and other projects firmly in development — while others have been discarded — Roewe said the studio now knows what they’ll need to hold on to and what they can part ways with.
“These items have been curated and taken care of since we finished filming.
“They are the quality that they were when we finished filming, and we’ve had people working on them for years to keep them in shape,” he said.
“We don’t need them anymore. It’s time to finally open it up to the world.”
Beyond the preservation and quality of the items, the sheer scale of the auction required months of collaboration with HBO and countless hours of research and planning to organise, said Joe Maddalena, the executive vice president of Heritage Auctions.
For fans who want to snag a piece of Game of Thrones, the vast collection is now open for preliminary bidding with the auction taking place October 10-12 through Heritage Auctions in Dallas.
